PHOTO CREDIT RICK RIVARD	PHOTO CREDIT IVAN SIMONEK

Stikine River Birding Festival Beckons Visitors to Wrangell
2012 April 23-26, 2012

Residents of Alaska’s Inside Passage community of Wrangell will celebrate the arrival of spring with their annual birding festival April 23 - 26. 2012. Spring arrives earlier in southeast Alaska than in other areas of the state. The festival is the first of many springtime birding and wildlife festivals held through out Alaska.

Visitors are invited to join the five day celebration which is marked by the largest springtime concentration of American Bald Eagles in North America. Festival events include golf tournaments, birding workshops, artist’s fair, island and river birding tours. Alaska Waters Stikine River Delta jet boat tours offer participants a chance to view Sea Lions chasing a supper of hooligan up the Stikine River, Bald Eagles fishing, as well as flocks of shore birds and other wildlife located on the delta.The Stikine River Birding Festival, (formerly Stikine River Garnet Festival) was founded in 1997 our company’s marketing director.

The festival is scheduled annually, every third week in April. It was created and designed to enhance the education of Wrangell’s children, community and visitors about the wildlife and history of the Stikine River Delta, and celebrate the area’s local native heritage and culture as well as encourage economic development and diversity for Central Southeast Alaska and the community of Wrangell.

The variety of the springtime concentration of wildlife on the Stikine’s (Stik-Heen) delta sets the Stikine River Garnet Festival apart from all other festivals in Alaska. Up to 2000 American Bald Eagles arrive to feed on hooligan traveling up the river’s Middle and North arm. The delta is a major stopover on the Pacific Fly-Way for approximately 200,000 shorebirds and up to 15,000 Snow Geese and over 10,000 Sand Hill Cranes. Approximately 123 different species of birds are represented annually on the delta beginning mid-April through the beginning of May. The spring run of “Hooligan” or Eulachon (a small, smelt like fish) also attracts large numbers of Steller Sea Lions and Harbor Seals. Leisnoi Island, located near the mouth of the river is a popular Sea Lion “haul out” during the spring Hooligan run. Occasionally, Orcas can be seen near the delta waiting to feast on stray Sea Lions or Seals.

PHOTO TOUR: Birding Slide Show